


Counter-seat

by hanniebeon



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, minor jeongcheol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 00:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7144889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanniebeon/pseuds/hanniebeon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The plan is for Mingyu to intimidate that half-dead guy so he finally surrenders his seat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counter-seat

McDonald’s is not Starbucks. No matter how you look at it, the fact stands true – they are two very different establishments, though both sell food and drinks, they are still drastically different. For one, you pay a superfluously high price for coffee or a snack in Starbucks because you want to sit there for a few hours. You don’t buy a burger or a soft drink and basically claim the seat in McDonald’s for more than an hour. That’s just not how it works.

 

Except life is terrible and people are sometimes assholes, so when Mingyu walks into McDonald’s at twelve o’clock (which is already a bad decision – why would anyone ever go to McDonald’s at lunchtime when about half the population seems to have the same idea?), there are absolutely no two-seaters available.

 

Mingyu spots a family leaving their seats in the corner of his eye, but even his long legs (he’s been told they give him many unfair advantages in the speed department) can’t beat the keen eyes and the persistence of a couple of teenage girls. He’s pretty sure they’re sending him triumphant glares as he pouts, moving away back towards the entrance.

 

It takes another fifteen minutes of lingering to convince Mingyu, but he ends up slipping into a seat opposite someone. He’s pretty certain the guy sitting across him is emo, because he’s decked in all black (even his earphones! and his book!). He furiously texts Seungcheol – without the weight of his book-filled bag on his back Mingyu feels a lot better, but that doesn’t help the fact that the elder male, who’s supposed to be his responsible tutor, is late again.

 

 _Where r u??_ , Mingyu texts about ten consecutive messages with roughly the same meaning to Seungcheol, then hesitates for all about ten seconds before sending another five messages to the elder male’s boyfriend Jeonghan for good measure. Jeonghan, bless him, actually replies a few minutes later to tell him he’s kicking Seungcheol out of bed now.

 

Mingyu resigns himself to at least another twenty minutes of waiting. He peers up casually to see the male opposite him flipping a page of his book, his coffee cup (who the heck orders coffee at McDonald’s?) half full. Probably half stale.

 

More than a little curious, he sneaks peek after peek at the other male. He’s not bad looking, almost on par with himself, with droopy eyes, ebony fringe and petal lips opened in concentration. For some reason, an image of a cat and a sloth immediately appear in his mind – the resemblance between this man and the two animals are really uncanny. Even the way he yawns as he flips another page is reminiscent of them.

 

Mingyu searches for any ways to identify him. Being in a McDonald’s so close to his university campus has got to mean something. Finally Mingyu notices three Hangul characters on the spine of the book, which, looking back, makes him seem foolish for not noticing such a blatant indicator earlier on. _Jeon. Won. Woo._ That’s what those characters spell out, and now Mingyu has a name to the face. Unfortunately, he’s never heard of a Jeon Wonwoo; even racking up information from the deepest recesses of his mind doesn’t help.

 

When half an hour (read: barely ten minutes) have passed yet the other male seems unresponsive to the world except for the occasional flipping of pages and Seungcheol’s probably going to arrive in the next five minutes, Mingyu decides to start an impromptu plan to get Jeon Wonwoo out of his seat so he can have a McFlurry while Seungcheol tutors him today.

 

Plan A: Intimidate Wonwoo by irritated fidgeting. Mingyu starts off tapping his foot impatiently against the flooring, fingering the material of his pants over his kneecap, then propping his face up, tapping his fingers idly on his cheeks.

 

Still no movement whatsoever from the other male beyond another page being flipped. Mingyu grudgingly accepts that the plan won’t work, his mind quickly working to formulate another one.

 

Plan B: Stare at Wonwoo until he surrenders his seat. Mingyu directs his pointed stare towards the bottom of the other male’s fringe.

 

Unfortunately, all he manages to notice is more details – the eyelashes rimming Wonwoo’s eyes, the delicate curve of his nose and his dagger-like cheekbones – and the only thing Mingyu can think about is _damn, he’s really handsome._

 

So that’s another failure.

 

Mingyu’s about to commence Plan C (a plan of action that’s he’s not thought about at all) when his phone notifies him with a text message from Seungcheol. He turns around to see Seungcheol standing by the door of the McDonald’s, beckoning with a vague motion of his hand (and a strangely thoughtful tilt to his head).

 

Giving Wonwoo a second glance – the other male hasn’t even moved, and he would look dead if not for the slight rise and fall of his chest – Mingyu decides it’s enough for one day. Perhaps Wonwoo won’t be there next time; Mingyu can’t tell if he’s happy or disappointed with that thought.

 

The next time Mingyu rushes into the McDonald’s only to discover that Seungcheol is late once again, and Wonwoo is still seated at that same seat. Mingyu doesn’t know why but he finds himself slotting easily into that seat across Wonwoo yet again – peering through his lashes he discovers Wonwoo’s eyes still fixated on the book, with absolutely no acknowledgement of his presence.

 

It’s a bit of a blow to Mingyu’s ego, but as the times Mingyu arrives at the restaurant for Seungcheol to be late and Wonwoo to be occupying that same seat and never ever notice him increases, every time Wonwoo fails to notice him it causes a twinge of irritation and longing in Mingyu’s chest.

 

It’s become a routine, almost, for Mingyu to arrive at the McDonald’s at lunch hour, order a Coke and slip into the seat opposite the forever-brooding male, wait patiently for Seungcheol appear at the front entrance, then give up on the McDonald’s seats and head into a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. Seungcheol seems to have made it a routine to be late too – Mingyu’s pretty sure the only reason he remembers to even turn up is because of Jeonghan’s constant reminders. Sometimes he can’t quite believe someone older than him like Seungcheol can be such a baby.

 

In the usual routine, not a single world is exchanged between him and Wonwoo. It’s sort of creepy, how he knows the other male’s name and how they’ve been sitting across each other for more than a month and yet have never had any form of conversation.

 

Needless to say, the events that occur on this day were bound to happen. Mingyu’s in a terrible mood today. Firstly, he’s feeling under the weather, and with every drop of rain that falls from the sky, every flash of lightning, he can almost feel the clock of patience inside his head ticking faster and faster. Secondly, he’d almost forgotten about Seungcheol tutoring him, and had was late to the McDonald’s. Mingyu couldn’t tell if it was fortunate that Seungcheol was still later than he was – Jeonghan couldn’t be contacted due to having pulled an all-nighter, according to Seungcheol. Last but certainly not least, by some absurd twist of fate, he’d forgotten to finish an essay due tomorrow. Granted he would’ve done it last minute anyways, but at this point he feels like he would do way better if he had more time (lies, and Mingyu knows it).

 

Mingyu doesn’t know why, but the more he looks at Wonwoo, the more he feels annoyed. Why is he always sitting in that specific seat? Why can’t he acknowledge Mingyu’s presence even once? Why is he always so effortlessly handsome? (Mingyu knows he’s pretty damn good looking himself but still.) Why can’t he just leave Mingyu’s thoughts alone?

 

“You know, there are plenty other places you could stay if you just wanted air conditioning and wifi.”

 

Mingyu’s heart is doing double flips in his chest when Wonwoo finally looks up. And goddamnit, he looks even more gorgeous from the front. He doesn’t notice the raised brow and the sardonic quirk of the other male’s lips until he speaks.

 

“You know, there are several other empty tables with two seats here, so you could just take one of those instead.” Mingyu’s face colours. He’s genuinely speechless, lips moving to form words that never make a sound. First of all – wow, Wonwoo’s voice is really deep and Adele would probably roll in that. Secondly, Mingyu immediately regrets whatever he said before.

 

It’s the instinct of flight over fight that guides Mingyu as he flies out the door.

 

To Seungcheol’s credit, it had taken more than a day for Jeonghan to find out about him and Wonwoo arguing. Mingyu wasn’t aware Jeonghan cared so much the situation with him and Wonwoo. But it was certainly true that although the other male needed to be cared for intensely (which was why him and Seungcheol were a match made in heaven) he cared twice as much for the people around him.

 

The thing was, Jeonghan was also an aggressive peacemaker. Mingyu was pretty sure Jeonghan would sacrifice himself a thousand times over for peace, which was why he’d turned up with a wrinkled brow and hair in a rumpled bun the next time Seungcheol had tutored him (in a sushi place Mingyu had chosen to relocate to).

 

“You have to make up to him.” Jeonghan had said as Seungcheol attempted to tidy his hair into a neater ponytail, waving his hands almost artistically in emphasis. He had repeated that same sentence (almost) every time he saw Mingyu the past few weeks – that is, enough to drill the fact that he should be very very sorry into Mingyu’s head. And ultimately force him to apologize, because Jeonghan’s amazingly manipulative like that. (Especially when he’s trying to convince people that he and Mingyu are equally handsome, which is a lie, Mingyu thinks. Jeonghan may be an angel but Mingyu insists his face was sculpted by the gods.)

 

Walking back into the McDonald’s after several weeks feels almost sentimental. Mingyu’s head is low, eyes firmly fixed on the floor. It’s sort of awkward, trying to peer up to see where he’s going but also doing his best to avoid Wonwoo – although he isn’t sure if Wonwoo is even there anymore. He doesn’t want to see Wonwoo, meet that strong stare without any prior mental preparation.

 

Of course, as life would have it, the next time Mingyu looks up he looks straight into Wonwoo’s eyes, as piercingly black as the time they had clashed, right in this very McDonald’s. Mingyu stops in his tracks for a second before reminding himself of the situation at hand.

 

It’s almost like there’s a narrator’s voice inside his head, narrating the entire event as he casually sidles up to Wonwoo.

 

_And here we have an awkward but very handsome Mingyu trying to casually approach a nonchalant and also very handsome Wonwoo. It is their first time meeting after their argument a few weeks ago – who knows what will happen with the pair?_

 

Mingyu winces when the chair leg scrapes against the floor as he slides into the seat. This time, Wonwoo folds a neat dog-ear into the page he’s on, putting the book down and staring at Mingyu eye to eye.

 

“H-hey, um. I wanted to apologize. For…you know, the other time. I didn’t say very nice things.” Mingyu says honestly, doing his best to return Wonwoo’s stare. Which he ultimately fails, ending up staring at his fingers as he fidgets nervously.

 

“I was looking out for you the entire first week, you know.” There’s a period of thought and silence before Wonwoo admits this, looking straight at Mingyu, “I wouldn’t have minded chatting with you. Or giving up my seat. ( _so he knew,_ Mingyu realizes) You could’ve just asked.”

 

“You noticed me?” Mingyu says dumbly, and immediately blushes because _hell, is that the only thing he understood from that admission_ and also because Wonwoo is laughing, a sonorous, hearty sound that makes tingles run all over Mingyu’s skin. He’s a little shell-shocked even as Wonwoo nods an affirmation, his laughter still resonating in Mingyu’s eardrums.

 

“How about the next time you have tuition with Seungcheol, we have a date beforehand?” Mingyu is way too relieved to question how Wonwoo knows he had tuition or the fact that the latter is proposing a date before twelve in the afternoon. But he can’t believe that all this time he thought he wasn’t noticed (“so basically he was your senpai” Jeonghan will say later because he’s nice but also way too honest) yet Wonwoo had thought about him from the start.

 

“Sure.” He replies, spotting Seungcheol by the entrance of the McDonald’s with far too wide of a smile adorning his face. Mingyu hesitates for one second before pressing a light kiss to Wonwoo’s fluffy black hair, whispering “Until next time.” then escaping. He’ll deal with the embarrassment during their date.

 

 

“Actually, I know Wonwoo.” Jeonghan admits on their first double date, and Mingyu almost gets whiplash from how fast he turns around to stare accusingly at the long-haired male, who shrugs.

 

“What can I say? Just watching you guys was pretty cute. Honestly, Seungcheol was late half the time because I forced him to stand outside and appreciate the view that is a slowly forming couple with me.”

 

“You knew about this.” Mingyu says to Seungcheol, eyes brimming with what he imagines is betrayal. The elder male just shrugs nonchalantly.

 

“Actually…” Wonwoo gives an anxious cough before he speaks, “Jeonghan hyung told me who you were, so I knew after that first time you came in.”

 

_Is the entire universe hell-bent on not telling Mingyu anything?_

 

“You really like hiding things from me, don’t you? Why do I still like you anyways…” Mingyu complains, but then Wonwoo pulls him into a kiss, and Mingyu has absolutely no complaints about that.

**Author's Note:**

> there are two different spellings of mcdonald’s (that or macdonald’s), so… just for clarification haha  
> do correct if i’m wrong though  
> thank you so much for reading! (˵Φ ω Φ˵)  
> as usual, my twitter if anyone wants to request anything or chat: https://twitter.com/cattalicious


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